Midfield performance against Gillingham= C'est superb

[The Truth]

Croft is turning into the engine man, against Gillingham he was always moving and closing the opposition quickly adding tough tackles and lots of interceptions. For me he is the sort of player this club has been screaming out for over the years. He wont allow the opposition to play, he can up the tempo of a match, has the ability to steal possession, he enables players like Bennett to get into more counter attacking positions and he isn't scared to shoot. The midfield is looking very potent with Crofts playing the midfield general role and Dicker pulling the strings with his passing range enabling the quick wing play, it really could turn into a very attractive partnership.
I still feel Dicker needs a bit more sharpening up especially under pressure, but still you can see the amount of potential he's showing.
A left winger with pace and the team will soon be knocking on that very flimsy play-off line.

 

[Ninja Elephant]

Crofts, I agree. Absolute MACHINE in the centre.

Dicker is absolute CLASS, however. Best central midfielder we've had since Richard Carpenter at his pomp (Steve Sidwell aside, of course).

Left winger, the missing link in the puzzle in my opinion. We just need to snap up Matty Robson from Carlisle and we're SET.

 

[The French Mistress]

Grammatical correction...............'c'etait superb'

 

[C17BHA]

I absolutely agree about Crofts. Took time to settle in but looks indispensable now. Other thing to watch for is how many headers he wins. He is not that tall but the spring and timing means he wins an awful lot of headers in the middle of the park.

 

[drew]

What was clear on Tuesday was that when Dicker is on form then the whole team plays well but when he goes out of the game we suffer. We started well and Dicker was pulling the strings and, for once at home, we scored when we were on top in terms of possession. However, Dicker went of the boil towards the end of the first half and Gillingham came back into it with far more possession. However, in the second half, Dicker got back on his game and, low and behold, we scored again.

Agree with the comments about Croft. Think he is the player that Steve Thomson should have been!

 

[Danny-Boy]

Grammatical correction...............'c'etait superb'

With an acute on the e please.

But you can give me French lessons any time, if you are a mistress that is...

 

[aftershavedave]

pedant alert:

c'était

 

[Mellotron]

Was unconvinced on Crofts until Tues night. He was excellent.

 

[BensGrandad]

What was clear on Tuesday was that when Dicker is on form then the whole team plays well but when he goes out of the game we suffer. We started well and Dicker was pulling the strings and, for once at home, we scored when we were on top in terms of possession. However, Dicker went of the boil towards the end of the first half and Gillingham came back into it with far more possession. However, in the second half, Dicker got back on his game and, low and behold, we scored again.

Agree with the comments about Croft. Think he is the player that Steve Thomson should have been!

I would agrre with part of that but would suggest that our problems in the early part of the 2nd half stemmed from Forster going off and Dickenson coming on and as a result we had nobody to hold the ball up and it was constantly being hit back at our defence. When OGH came on he was a nuisance and didnt allow their defenders to settle on the ball.